Employees oftentimes work in shifts such that a first employee is working during a first shift, a second employee is working during a second shift and a third employee is working during a third shift. For example, bus drivers, nurses and other types of employees may work in shifts in order to perform the job responsibilities for a longer period of time than that worked by any of the individual employees. As such, schedules may be developed that identify the various employees and the shifts during which the employees will be at work.
To facilitate communication with an employee, an employee may carry a mobile terminal, such as a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a pager or the like. In an instance in which multiple employees work in shifts, it is desirable to be able to communicate with the particular employee who is currently at work or on stand-by, but not with the other employees who are off work, thereby avoiding inconveniencing the other employees.
In some instances in which multiple employees work in shifts, efforts to establish communications with the employees who are currently at work may simply involve placing a call or otherwise communicating with one of the employees to determine if the employee is active. If the employee does not respond, it may be assumed that the employee is not at work and efforts to communicate with another employee may be undertaken. This process may continue until the employee who is currently at work responds. However, this process may result in a number of unsuccessful efforts to communicate with the employee who is currently at work, thereby being somewhat inefficient and potentially inconveniencing the employees who are off work but are nonetheless the subject of a call or other form of communication. Instead of communicating with the employees who work in shifts in a serial fashion, efforts to communicate with the employees who work in shifts may be undertaken in a simultaneous fashion, such as by placing calls to a number of mobile terminals of the employees in an effort to reach the employee who is currently at work. While this approach may result in successful communications with the employee who is at work in a quicker fashion, it may also be inefficient in that communications are attempted with a number of employees who are not at work.
Regardless of the technique by which communications with the employee who is currently at work are established, each of employees may carry multiple mobile terminals. For example, an employee may carry a personal mobile terminal as well as another mobile terminal for receiving work-related communications, particularly while the employee is at work. Having to carry multiple mobile terminals may be inconvenient for the employee, especially for those that use hands-free extensions.